So now I'm unemployed again. My contract ended on Monday. This came as a surprise to all involved, as everyone else thought it was at least Friday. Contract Services notified security to revoke my pass. They didn't notify me, my firm, or my manager about this, so nobody else knew. This came as quite a surprise to me on Tuesday morning when I turned up for work and was refused entry into the building. I had to get my manager to sign me in as a visitor so I could at least clear out my desk, and finish up stuff.

Quite reasonably all parties involoved were more than a little annoyed about the way my contract ended, especially me. I'd been after my manager for weeks to try and get a definite finish date, but he couldn't get any information about it.

Whats even more stupid is that although they need people in the department, they can't hire anyone. They can hire contractors, but only for a year (because legal is scared of the permatemp problem Microsoft had). So they let us go, then hire more contractors.

My firm told me that they had a position available at Microsoft in Redmond. There were a few problems with this:

• I don't like Microsoft, and I have ethical problems with working for them
  
• Redmond is on the other side of Seattle, and it's about a 3 hour commute given Seattle traffic
  
• Microsoft don't pay contractors that well.
  

So here I am updating my resume, and I've decided to go back to Ireland for 3 weeks and visit family and friends.